The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom (1968)

Harriet Blossom, the lonely wife of a workaholic brassiere manufacturer, breaks her sewing machine and ends up in bed with the repairman, a mechanic from one of her husband's factories. The... See full summary »

Director:

Joseph McGrath

Writers:

Josef Shaftel (short story), Alec Coppel (play)

Stars:

Shirley MacLaine, Richard Attenborough, James Booth

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Shirley MacLaine	...	Harriet Blossom
Richard Attenborough	...	Robert Blossom
James Booth	...	Ambrose Tuttle
Freddie Jones	...	Det. Sgt. Dylan
William Rushton	...	Dylan's assistant
Bob Monkhouse	...	Dr. Taylor
Patricia Routledge	...	Miss Reece
John Bluthal	...	Judge
Harry Towb	...	Doctor
Sandra Caron	...	Pet shop assistant
Sheila Steafel	...	Pet shop saleslady (as Sheila Staefel)
Frank Thornton	...	Factory manager
Barry Humphries	...	Art dealer
John Cleese	...	Post Office Clerk
Bruce Lacey	...	Musketeer

Storyline

Harriet Blossom, the lonely wife of a workaholic brassiere manufacturer, breaks her sewing machine and ends up in bed with the repairman, a mechanic from one of her husband's factories. The man, Ambrose, is supposed to leave during the night but Harriet finds him the next day still hiding in the attic. Harriet lets her new lover stay in the attic for years, managing to keep it all secret from her husband and from the detectives investigating the sudden disappearance of a certain Mr. Ambrose Tuttle.

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Plot Keywords:

disappearance | surrealism | breasts growing | breast enlargement | buxom | 

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Taglines:

The Years Big Put-On...And Take-Off Too!

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

M

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 September 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

Un marido de repuesto

Filming Locations:

Taplow Goods Shed, Taplow, Berkshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is (loosely) based on a real incident. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, Dolly Oesterreich kept her lover, Otto Sanhuber in the attic where he lived for many years. Her husband Fred ran a company that made aprons. Otto even moved with the couple from Milwaukee to Los Angeles to stay above his lover. Unfortunately, the real story doesn't have the happy ending of the movie.

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Goofs

When Mrs Blossom meets Mr Tuttle they play a game of snooker. The last ball potted is shown, a green ball. In snooker the last ball is always black. There is no reason that they were not playing according to the rules.

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Connections

References Zulu (1964)

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Soundtracks

Main Title Theme
Written by Riz Ortolani and Norman Newell
Performed by Shirley MacLaine

User Reviews

Shirley MacLaine in a Mod, Mod World

I am hesitant when recommending this movie, not because I doubt the movie, but because I doubt people. There are so many criticisms that non-believers could throw at THE BLISS OF MRS. BLOSSOM - that it's silly, obvious, crude, cartoonish, dated - but they would all be beside the point. The point is that this movie is a sweet-natured ding-bat adolescent pro-feminist look at sex and marriage in a world where people don't seem to have naughty bits - except women, whose most noticeable naughty bits need to be covered by industrial strength brassieres. The dialogue is a step above Benny Hill, but the performances (Shirley MacLaine, Richard Attenborough, James Booth and even [briefly] John Cleese) lift it to the level of Noel Coward, just by putting an aching sincerity into the outlandish situations. Most memorable, however, is the art direction, costume design, and editing, all of which take off from Carnaby Street and land somewhere on the planet Swinging Mod Paisley Surprise. The editing is particularly trippy, with deliberate disjunctions of time and space that give the title character an almost otherworldly cool. And why reach for THE BLISS OF MRS. BLOSSOM when there are so many other relics of Mod London in the late sixties to choose from? Because, like Linus's pumpkin patch, it's really and truly very sincere: whereas other movies of the period where aimed cynically at the youth market, T.B.O.M.B. is aimed at adults.